James Webb telescope detects evidence of ancient 'universe breaker' galaxies
Source: The Guardian
The objects date to a time when the universe was just 3% of its current age and are far larger than was presumed possible for galaxies so early after the big bang. If confirmed, the findings would call into question scientists understanding of how the earliest galaxies formed.
These objects are way more massive than anyone expected, said Joel Leja, an assistant professor of astronomy and astrophysics at Penn State University and a study co-author. We expected only to find tiny, young, baby galaxies at this point in time, but weve discovered galaxies as mature as our own in what was previously understood to be the dawn of the universe.
The observations come from the first dataset released from Nasas James Webb space telescope, which is equipped with infrared-sensing instruments capable of detecting light emitted by the most ancient stars and galaxies. While sifting through images, Dr Erica Nelson, of the University of Colorado Boulder, and a co-author, spotted a series of fuzzy dots that appeared unusually bright and unusually red.
Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/science/2023/feb/22/universe-breakers-james-webb-telescope-detects-six-ancient-galaxies

LudwigPastorius
(13,639 posts)Maybe somebody was just having a cigarette after that Big Bang.
Ray Bruns
(5,700 posts)Hiding behind those galaxies, perhaps?
Talitha
(7,616 posts)As Spock would say: "Fascinating!"
wolfie001
(6,321 posts)But thanks anyway James Webb Deep Space Telescope!!!!
Bayard
(27,449 posts)Cute.
Fairly fascinating discovery.
tinrobot
(11,825 posts)It'll be interesting to see how the cosmologists correct the theories to account for these galaxies.
nuxvomica
(13,704 posts)Douglas Adams had this all figured out a while ago.
Javaman
(64,685 posts)And occasionally bump into each other sharing galaxies.
Hortensis
(58,785 posts)This means wonderful new explorations and new opportunities. To boldly go where no mind has gone before... Or something like that.
ZZenith
(4,433 posts)
Layzeebeaver
(2,102 posts)and that is...
If this sensor data turns out to be accurate it will be an incredible impact to astrophysics and likely a lot of other stuff as well.
Perhaps a few large ripples to human understanding of the edge cases of core physics. It really could change thinking.
It will be interesting to see how the 'physics media stars' make their early attempts to explain it.
Joinfortmill
(19,254 posts)melm00se
(5,126 posts)galaxies?
friend of a friend
(367 posts)blugbox
(955 posts)See my post below. Sorry about that!
jgmiller
(655 posts)It's the degree to which the infared spectrum shifts that determines distance and therefore the time the light has been traveling which then tells you age.
blugbox
(955 posts)The universe's expansion stretches light as it travels through space. The more redshift, the further away and thus, older, the galaxies are. Pretty amazing stuff!
honest.abe
(9,238 posts)we simply dont know.
Kaleva
(40,023 posts)tavernier
(14,027 posts)determining the size of the universe by what we can see as we look up.